Psalm 73

New International Reader's Version

² But my feet had almost slipped.
    I had almost tripped and fallen.
³ I saw that proud and sinful people were doing well.
    And I began to long for what they had.

⁴ They don’t have any troubles.
    Their bodies are healthy and strong.
⁵ They don’t have the problems most people have.
    They don’t suffer as other people do.
⁶ Their pride is like a necklace.
    They put on meanness as if it were their clothes.
⁷ Many sins come out of their hard and stubborn hearts.
    There is no limit to the evil things they can think up.
⁸ They laugh at others and speak words of hatred.
    They are proud. They warn others about the harm they can do to them.
⁹ They brag as if they owned heaven itself.
    They talk as if they controlled the earth.
¹⁰ So people listen to them.
    They lap up their words like water.
¹¹ They say, “How would God know what we’re doing?
    Does the Most High God know anything?”

¹² Here is what sinful people are like.
    They don’t have a care in the world.
    They keep getting richer and richer.

¹³ It seems as if I have kept my heart pure for no reason.
    It didn’t do me any good to wash my hands
    to show that I wasn’t guilty of doing anything wrong.
¹⁴ Day after day I’ve been in pain.
    God has punished me in a new way every morning.

¹⁵ What if I had talked like that?
    Then I wouldn’t have been faithful to God’s children.
¹⁶ I tried to understand it all.
    But it was more than I could handle.
¹⁷ It troubled me until I entered God’s temple.
    Then I understood what will finally happen to bad people.

¹⁸ God, I’m sure you will make them slip and fall.
    You will throw them down and destroy them.
¹⁹ It will happen very suddenly.
    A terrible death will take them away completely.
²⁰ A dream goes away when a person wakes up.
    Lord, it will be like that when you rise up.
    It will be as if those people were only a dream.

²¹ At one time my heart was sad
    and my spirit was bitter.
²² I didn’t have any sense. I didn’t know anything.
    I acted like a wild animal toward you.

²³ But I am always with you.
    You hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ You give me wise advice to guide me.
    And when I die, you will take me away
    into the glory of heaven.
²⁵ I don’t have anyone in heaven but you.
    I don’t want anything on earth besides you.
²⁶ My body and my heart may grow weak.
    God, you give strength to my heart.
    You are everything I will ever need.

²⁷ Those who don’t want anything to do with you will die.
    You destroy all those who aren’t faithful to you.
²⁸ But I am close to you. And that’s good.
    Lord and King, I have made you my place of safety.
    I will talk about everything you have done.